The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Tony Stark builds a robot to do the work of the Avengers but his genius plan backfires slightly when the robot decides to wipe out humanity instead.

Medium. He gets top billing but still fights for screentime in this overstuffed action flick.

Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, blah blah blah

Like a superhero elder statesman

Actually [Captain America] is the boss. I just pay for everything and design everything, make everyone look cooler.

He’s too busy inventing a killer robot then trying to kill the killer robot to bother with Pepper in this one.

Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Anthony Mackie

The whole point of the first Avengers was, can these folks work together to do something very difficult and very important. And this time, we’re kind of assuming that they can, and so how do you further complicate it? And I think that’s why what Joss has done a great job with ... It really is a Swiss watch of character and action and stakes. It’s easily the best bad guy plot I’ve ever even read in a script let alone gone out and shot ... Tony’s kind of okay, they’re wrapping up some old business and it seems like everything’s fine. The problem is, it’s always that thing—Tony’s like, “I have a really good idea.” ... [Stark] is just trying to make it so that the world doesn’t have to count on these flawed people, so he actually has a really good idea, it just kind of ends up being co-opted ... Stark can set Banner up to continue his good works in Stark Tower. Tony has a project of his own, so it’” one of those things, they’re like a development team—“Hey, how’s it going over there? That looks nice and green, can I talk to you about this other idea I have?“ and winds up not being such a good idea. And Bruce is dubious as to the moral psychology of this project idea of Tony’s. It’s nice because it sets up a little bit of tension between us ... This is longest bench of talent that I’ve ever been a part of. I become a little less significant every time, which is just fine because they’re all so damn good ... It’s kind of a toss-up for who’s going to steal the movie whether it’s [James Spader] or [Paul] Bettany or Lizzy Olsen or Aaron Taylor-Johnson ... The Marvel universe has never seen anything like what Jimmy Spader has done. Get ready. Strap in.

Marvel’s The Mighty Avengers comics. It is only loosely based on the Age of Ultron comic, despite having the same name.

Present day (2015), all over the globe from New York to fictional European countries

Avengers: Age of Ultron: The Abridged Script
Avengers: Age of Ultron Honest Trailer

Released in theaters on 1 May 2015. On DVD in region 1, 2 and 4 and on Blu-ray.

74% fresh | 284 reviews

Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post: Stark, of course, is the most obnoxious of the Avengers, a wealthy, cock-of-the-walk embodiment of entitlement and arrogance who’s just begging to be taken down several notches. He meets his match, knowing wink for knowing wink, in Ultron, a character that’s tailor-made for Spader’s late-career incarnation as the smooth, erudite baddie who’s so easy to loathe. The battle of wits between the two ultimately pivots around issues of super-ego and id, pluralism and chauvinism, chaos and order.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Some viewers will love it, others will hate it, and still others will yawn at its very existence. If you’re not acquainted with the intricacies of the Marvel universe, it can be hard to keep track of who’s doing what to whom and especially why. In story terms, the movie is outlandishly overpacked.

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Whedon may think he’s given us a vision of the apocalypse, but there’s no need to worry about the end of the world. The real worry here is the end of filmmaking as art.

1. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner as roommates, with all the drama that entails.
2. For the Brat Pack mini-reunion of Spader-bot and Downey-in-a-metal-suit.

A comic book movie crammed with too many unrelated plotlines involving way too many characters.